Base-ball apparatus.



A. McMlLLAN.

BASE BALL APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN-14. i915.

Patented Oct. 31, 1916.

Dave

urmz WASNINVHOAL n c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER IVIoMILLAN, or rnINoE'roIT, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR 'ro AUTOMATIC BASE BALL 00., or ILLINOIS, ACORPORATION 0E ILLINOIS.

BASE-BALL APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 31, 1918.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER MoMIL- necessary to use a system Of'inclined planes and overhanging structure, which has been found to be not very successful for automatically feeding Or delivering the batted balls to the pitching apparatus, or to employ a boy to manually pick up the batted balls and place them in the feeding device which must necessarily be in an elevated position in Order that the balls may fall by gravity therefrom onto the pitching device for automatically releasing said device.

Theprincipal Object of the present invention is to provide improved and simplified means for automatically delivering or feeding the batted balls to the pitching or discharging device, whereby the more elaborate structure heretofore used and found to be objectionable as Obstructingor l1m1t1ng the area within which the balls may be batted is dispensed with and it is not necessary to employ a boy or attendant for manually delivering the balls to the feeding apparatus.

Another object isto combine thelnew feeding apparatus with the speed varying and resetting device disclosed in my Patent No. 1,114,012, issued Oct. 20, 1914.

Further objects will appear as the descrlption proceeds.

The invention will be first hereinafter described in connection with the accompanying drawings, whichconstitute a part of this specification, and thenmore specifically defined, in the claims at the end of the description.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein similar reference characters are used to present invention, the inclosing screen and ball arresting curtain being shown in section, Fig. 2 is an enlarged detailed side view Of the pitching device and feeding apparatus, the raised position of the feeding arm being illustrated in dotted lines, as well as the positions of the other parts of the apparatus when the common actuating lever is moved forward, and Fig. 8 is a plan view showing more particularly the arrangement of the branch trough at the middle point of the transverse trough in front of the ball arresting curtain.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, A designates the sides of a screened inclosure arranged in front of the batters position or plate B and extending a suitable distance longitudinally, vertically and laterally. These sides, as well as the top C of the inclosure, may be made of woven wire or other suitable material. Across the end of the inclosure farthest from the plate B, there is placed a ball arresting curtain or screen I), which may also be made of woven The pitching mechanism E carries the ball holder G, corresponding t0 the fingers or hand of a pitchers arm, and a hook or catch H normally engaged by the trigger device K which is pivoted to the frame F at 70 and has a portion 7a projecting above the extension G to be engaged by a ball delivered onto said extension from the feeding chute to be presently described. The trigger K is normally held in engage ment with the catch H On the arm E by a spring L. r

A heavy Operating spring M is connected to the lower end of the arm E, while a lighter resetting spring N is attached to said arm above its pivot. The spring N'is connected to the frame F, while'the spring M is attached to the upper end of a bell crank designate corresponding parts throughout; lever O pivoted at 0 to a supporting frame the several views, Figure 1 is a side eleva- 3 F. To the lower end of the bell crank lever tion of the mechanicalbaseball pitchingap- 0 there is connected a rod P which extends .paratus constructed in accordance withthe'i to a point near the plate B where it is in turn connected to the lower end of a lever B having a hand actuated pawl 7 adapted to interlock with a segmental rack s.

' At'the bottom of the ball arresting curtain or screen D, there is formed a trans- Verse trough T which is inclined toward the center of the inclosure and is adapted to deliver batted balls to an inclined branch trough t extending longitudinally of the inclosure toward the frame F, 'asshown in Figs. 2 and 3. The floor of the inclosure is inclined from a transverse line'U toward the trough T in one direction and toward the batters position in the other direction, as clearly illustrated at u and a, Fig. 1, so

, that the batted balls willbe delivered either to the trough T or back to the batter. The branch chute t is equipped with a check lever V to which is attached a spring '0. One end of thelever Vis normally engaged by the lower end of the automatic feeding arm \V, and is held in the depressedposition illustrated in solid line Fig. 2, against the tension of the spring a. When the arm W is raised, as will be presently described, the spring o will move the lever V to the position illustrated in dotted line, Fig. 2 thereby permitting one of the balls X to pass the check end 1) of said lever, so as to be delivered to the feeding arm W when the same is lowered again.

I The feeding arm W is pivoted at w to the 1 frame F and has its shorter arm connected by a link Y to one arm of a bell crank lever Z which is pivoted at 10 to the frame F. The other arm of the bell crank lever Z is connected by a link 11 to the lower arm of thebell crank lever 0. It will thusbe seen that when the lever B, which is arranged near the batters position, is moved rearwardly or in a direction away from the pitching apparatus, the bell-crank levers O and Z and the feeding arm W will be moved into the positions illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 2. A feeding chute l2 isconstructed at the top of the frame F, which chute is adapted to deliver balls placed therein to the extension G of the pitching arm E. The free end of the arm WV is equipped with a cup or basket 13 into which the balls are delivered, one at a time, from the branch chute t by'meansof the check lever'V as already described. When the arm W is raised to the dotted line position, the ball is carried upward in said cup or basket 13 and delivered into the upper end of the delivery chute 12 from which it immediately passes down onto the extension G of the pitching arm E. It will be observed that when the bell crank lever O is moved to the dotted line position,

Fig. 2, the tension of the spring M is greatly increased, so that when the ball X is delivered onto the extension G of the pitching arm E and strikes the projecting end 7c of the trigger K,- thereby releasing said pitching arm, the latter will be actuated by the spring M to pitch the ball to thebatter. When the lever It is movedback again to the solid line position, Fig. 2, the bell crank levers O and G and the feeding arm W will all be returned to their solid line position. This return movement of the bell crank lever 0 will reduce the tension on the spring M suiiiciently to permit the resetting spring N to pull the pitching arm E back into interlocking engagement with thetrigger K. It will thus be seen that the feeding arm is actuated to deliver a batted ball to the chute l2 simultaneously with the tensioning of the spring M by means of the leverlt. As fully explained in my patent referred to above, the segmental rack. S permits the spring M to be drawn to different tensions, thus varying the speed at which vthe balls will be pitched.

Having thus fully described my invention what I desire to secure by Letters Patent. of the United States is:

1.. In" a device. of the character described, the combination with means, for mechanically pitching a ball, of means for accumulating batted balls inposition to be fed to the pitching means, means for resetting said pitching means after a ball has been pitched, means for mechanically feeding the balls, thus accumulated, one at a time, to the pitch ing means, and means for simultaneously returning said feeding means to position to receive the next ball to be fed and resetting the pitching means. n

52. In a device or the character described,

the combination with means for mechanically pitching a ball, of means for accumulating batted balls in position to be fed to said pitching means, including an inclined trough, a check lever arranged in said trough and having one end normally projecting into the path of the balls, resilient means tending to withdraw said projecting end of the lever, and means for mechanically feeding said balls one at a time to the pitching means, said feeding means being adapted to engage the other end of the check lever for holding it in normal position against thetension of the spring.

3. In a device of the character described,

the combination with means for mechant ingmeans, said cup being adapted to ac-- tuatesaid check lever at each operation.

4. In a device of the character described,

the combination with a lever for mechanically pitching a ball, of a trigger on said lever normallyholding it in working position and adapted to be actuated for releasing said lever when a ball is dropped into position to be pitched, a delivery chute arranged above the pitching lever, means for accumulating batted balls in position to be fed to the pitching lever, a pivoted arm having means 011 its free end for receiving the balls and feeding them to the delivery chute, an operating spring attached to the pitching lever and normally at low tension, and means for simultaneously increasing the tension of said spring and actuating said arm from a point near the batters position.

5. In a device of the character described, the combination with means for mechanically pitching a ball, of means for accumulating batted balls in position to be fed to a position for delivery to the pitching means, including an inclined trough, and a yielding check means for allowing only one ball to pass from the trough at a time,

name to this specification in the presence of two attesting Witnesses.

ALEXANDER MGMILLAN.

Witnesses:

H. G. BROWN, WM. R. MATTHEWS.

@opies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

